68

• Labour immense! and yet, if small the pest;
• If numerous, if industrious be thy gang;
• At length, thou may’st the victory obtain. [250]
• But, if the living taint be far diffus’d,
• Bootless¹ this toil; nor will it then avail
• (Tho’ ashes lend their suffocating aid)
• To bare the broad roots, and the mining swarms
• Expose, remorseless, to the burning noon. [255]
• Ah! must then ruin desolate the plain?
• Must the lost planter other climes explore?
• Howe’er reluctant, let the hoe uproot
• The infected Cane-piece; and, with eager flames,
• The hostile myriads thou to embers turn: [260]
• Far better, thus, a mighty loss sustain,
• Which happier years and prudence may retrieve;
• Than risque thine all. As when an adverse storm,
• Impetuous, thunders on some luckless ship,
• From green St. Christopher, or Cathäy bound: [265]
• Each nautic art the reeling seamen try:
• The storm redoubles: death rides every wave:
• Down by the board the cracking masts they hew;
• And heave their precious cargo in the main.

VER. 265. Cathäy] An old name for China.

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